Today I'm going back 16 years to 2006 and Racing Club Warwick's visit to the splendidly named Sheepy Road, home of "the Adders" (or Atherstone Town as they are known) in the Midland Football Alliance. The rather wonderful programme cover proudly displays Atherstone's trophy haul from their previous season and, almost worth the cover price on its own, the puntastic "You just adder have it". Atherstone had just been promoted into the Midland Football Alliance from the Midland Combination Premier Division and were justly proud of the enormous shield that they had been awarded as a result. Indeed newly promoted Atherstone had done the Midland Combination double the previous season having also won the League Cup to go with that shield. I guess they just adder have them both?
Atherstone is a Town with a fairly chequered history as regards its football clubs with the club over-reaching, going bust and then reforming on more than one occasion. The current iteration of Atherstone is the Atherstone Town that was formed in 2004 but the original incarnation was formed back in 1887. They went bust in 1979 and immediately reformed as Atherstone United but that version only lasted until 2004 when they folded once more. Certainly Atherstone's supporter base has proved to be a little "over-exuberant" over the years with warnings and ground closures having been issued to the club. On the day in question, the attendance was 253, larger than average for the Midland Football Alliance, but I have to say that the locals weren't particularly welcoming. Even less so when Warwick left with all three points!
The game was settled by a single goal and, to everyone's surprise, it was Warwick who got it in the 39th minute when James Graham swept home. Perhaps it was a bit of Portuguese know-how sitting in the Warwick dug-out that day because Racing Club were managed by Jose Ascensao. Certainly the more home grown Atherstone Town manager Jimmy Ginnelly was left feeling highly frustrated at the result.
The season proved to be yet another poor one for Racing Club Warwick who finished 19th (of 22) and indeed only leapt out of the bottom three on the final day of the season when a remarkable set of results lifted them from the foot of the table. In the end however, it made little difference as no side ended up being relegated that season. Champions of the Midland Alliance were Leamington who clocked up 103 points and finished 17 points clear of runners-up Romulus. Both Leamington and Romulus were promoted into the Southern League Division 1 Midlands whilst third placed Quorn were also promoted into the Northern Premier League Division 1 South. Atherstone Town ended the season in a more than respectable 8th position and would be promoted as Champions the following season.
CRB Match No. 1519
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